Glasgow Warriors name PRO12 Final team

Jonny Gray starts in the second row for Glasgow Warriors against Leinster. Picture: SNS

GREGOR Townsend has not been afraid to change a winning team all season and he wasn’t going to change his ways ahead of this evening’s all-important RaboDirect final against Leinster in Dublin.

There are two new faces in the starting 15 compared to the side that beat Munster by one point in that nail-biting semi-final at Scotstoun two weeks ago.

Mark Bennett is replaced in the midfield by Peter Horne with Alex Dunbar shuffling from 12 to 13 to accommodate him at inside centre. In the front row, Gordon Reid is preferred to Lions tourist Ryan Grant after proving a more than able deputy for much of the semi-final.

“Gordon has played really well,” said Townsend. “He played well up to the semi-final and he took his opportunity in the semi-final. We were pleased with what Ryan did, but Gordon played a bit longer. We know we have strength there. Peter [Horne] has played well since he got back from his injury. He offers something different tactically, a left-foot kicking option and another first receiver, someone to help Finn through the game having played at ten himself.

“It is unlucky on Mark Bennett, who has played well. Having Peter there gives us a kicking option, a second-receiver option. We had that at the Royal Dublin Showground early in the season, with Finn [Russell] at 12 outside Ruaridh [Jackson].”

Townsend has almost always selected twin playmakers when he can. While the introduction of the compact Horne into the midfield won’t see Glasgow blast any holes in the bombproof Leinster defence, the inside centre is one of the smarter bears around and his ability to deliver the telling pass could be the key to unlock the Dublin defence, especially given Townsend’s claim that Leinster are using more line speed and bigger gaps between defenders. So Glasgow will have very little time on the ball but there will be holes to exploit if Horne is on the money.

Dunbar has been Scotland’s find of the season and his flexibility gives his coach options. Townsend confirmed that the former Annan man was moved to the outside centre berth at least partly to keep a lid on some fella called Brian O’Driscoll, whoever he is.

“Alex Dunbar has played really well for us at 12 and 13. He played well against O’Driscoll at 13 this year and had a fantastic game for Scotland over there. Yes, that is one reason why he is at 13.”

O’Driscoll is not the only one making his farewell appearance. Ruaridh Jackson, Moray Low and Chris Cusiter are all playing their last game for Glasgow today, with fans and pundits alike still trying to get their heads around why Townsend allowed his number one No 9 to sign for Sale.

One player who isn’t leaving, if you take Townsend at his word, is Stuart Hogg, despite the British and Irish Lions full-back finding himself surplus to requirements for the second time in succession. “He is here next year,” said his current coach, although many would question that after Hogg was allegedly caught talking to Ulster Rugby with one more year left on his contract.

After coming close in recent years, Glasgow lost to the same opposition at the same ground at the semi-final stage in each of the last two seasons. Could this be the year when Glasgow go one better and actually beat Leinster in front of their own fans?

“I think so,” said a remarkably relaxed Townsend. “We came very close last year in the semi-final, when we hit the post to take it into extra time. It was a cracking game, probably our best of the season. You have to play at your very best when you take on teams like Leinster.

“This year was also pretty close over there. It was 28-25 and we had opportunities near the end. At home, we had a fantastic defensive display and played really well with the ball in hand. We realise we have to be at our best. Looking at where we have been in the last few weeks, we believe that will be enough to win the game.”

Townsend looked confident and relaxed as he talked about his team’s chances this evening but most of his work has been done already. As the clock winds down to kick-off, the players increasingly take charge of events and there is little else he can do to influence things from here.

Scottish rugby’s off-field activities received a huge boost in midweek with the news of the BT deal. All that is required now is for that success to be mirrored on the pitch, the one place where Scotland’s clubs have struggled throughout 18 long years of professional rugby. What would a first win for the Scottish pro-teams mean for Townsend?

“Personally, I would just be so thrilled for the players,” comes the response. “It was such a pleasure to see them win the semi-final because of the effort they put in, so I imagine the emotion will be similar to that night. I think it would be a huge boost for Scottish rugby. The buzz created by going to a semi-final is very similar to what Edinburgh did two years ago in the Heineken Cup. We want to give it our best shot and do all we can to win.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.